Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

Looking through the lens of Dave Price

One last father and son road trip for training camp

Aug 30, 2024 | 7:00 AM

When Dave Price traveled from his home in Saskatoon to Kelowna over the weekend, you could not help but sympathize with a small lump in his throat. 

Kelowna Rockets defenseman Caden Price’s father realized that this may be the final time he travels with his hockey-playing son to a Western Hockey League training camp. 

Now 19, and a signed player after being selected in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft by the Seattle Kraken in 2023, the likelihood of Caden playing pro hockey in the American Hockey League next season is very real.  

“When we were driving and just coming out of the city [of Saskatoon], I told him, this could be it,” Dave told RocketFAN. “Unless he comes back as a 20-year-old…it kind of dawned on me that this is going to be special, this is a good father-son bonding time and this probably won’t happen again.” 

The 13-hour trek has been commonplace over the years. Dave remembers driving a nervous 16-year-old Caden to camp four years ago, with the distinct possibility of leaving him in the Okanagan to chase his hockey dream. 

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“She cried this time, and she cried the first time,” he said about wife, April, getting emotional every time the couple’s eldest son left home for B.C. “She said with tears in her eyes this time, ‘it doesn’t get any easier’. We are used to having him around at home, but the grocery bill definitely goes down when he leaves.” 

Looking back at the maiden voyage when Caden was chosen in the second round of the WHL Prospects Draft in 2020, Dave wasn’t overly concerned about his son getting home sick. 

“He has been independent for a long time,” he said. “He obviously likes people cooking for him like any teenager, but he could have probably moved out at 14 if he would have played at an academy. He was mature at that age. He knew he would probably be leaving home at 16 or 17 to play hockey, so he is mature and always has been.” 

What has made life easier for Dave and his wife is an excellent Kelowna-based billet family.  

“We hit the jackpot,” he said with a smile on his face. “They [Darren and Natalie Tochor] treat him well. They are super nice people and they dote on him like April does at home. They came to Nashville with us [for the NHL draft], so they are salt of the earth people. We couldn’t have asked for better there. We got super lucky.” 

While Caden has the pleasure of playing hockey in one of the finest cities on the circuit, Dave and April don’t sit idly by during the cold winter months in Saskatchewan. You will often see one or both in an opposing rink, especially when the team makes a prairie road trip. 

“The thing I’ve noticed over the years is boys to men,” Dave reflected on how his son has changed since making his WHL debut October 8, 2021 with an assist in Victoria against the Royals. “He was coming in as a 16-year-old boy and now he is a 19-year-old man. He has gotten bigger and stronger. Again, he has been a mature kid, had a good head on his shoulders, but he has grown up to become a young man. 

“His focus has only intensified as the years have gone on. He treats it like a job. He takes it seriously. His goal was to get drafted and to be the best defenseman he can be whether it be with Kelowna or Coachella or with the Seattle Kraken. He is dialed in.” 

RocketFAN has the privilege of watching behind the scenes as Caden prepares his body for game action. Logging huge minutes, getting his physique to perform at a high level happens significantly well before puck drop. 

“His pre-game warmup is intense,” Dave added. “What he puts in his body…all summer he doesn’t treat himself to Dairy Queen. I tell him to live a little, have a Blizzard once in a blue moon, but he is regimented.” 

That attention to detail has not gone unnoticed. Attending the summer evaluation camp for the Canadian world junior team is another feather in his cap, and while quiet, you would have to think his name would be considered for the Rockets’ vacant captaincy with the departure of over-ager Gabriel Szturc. 

“I am super proud of him,” Dave concluded. “I couldn’t have asked for a better kid. Even away from the hockey side, he is good guy and deserves everything he has gotten. He may not get the recognition he deserves, but we encourage him to keep putting your head down and go to work and eventually it will pay off.”

In true Dave Price form, he left RocketFAN with the best quote for last. 

“His mom did a real good job with him.”